And one could argue as the global recession and credit crunch continues to bite, would-be fraudsters may look for more ingenious and dishonest ways to fleece unsuspecting members of the public.

You regularly hear stories both in the local and national press about bogus water board officials, bogus policemen and other con-artists duping pensioners out of their life savings, which is quite frankly despicable.

Most of these retired people have saved up for many years so they can enjoy their retirement - and quite right that they should bearing in mind it was their generation who fought against Nazi tyranny across Europe in the Second World War.

Hearing that they have been duped out of thousands of pounds of money by scammers infuriates me and just shows there are people out there with no shame or morals.

But more alarmingly the growth of internet-related scams seems to continue unabated.

Just two years ago, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the government's financial watchdog said there had been an 8,000 per cent increase in fake internet banking scams, or 'phishing' as it is called.

This involves using fake websites to lure people into revealing their bank account numbers.

And last month Microsoft researchers in Singapore warned that identity theft now threatened the growth of e-commerce.

I have four email addresses and am constantly being sent junk mail and fake bank notifications asking for my personal details, even to my work email account.

Anything ranging from offers to buy cheap Viagra and replica watches, fake offers of dating from 'young Russian ladies', to badly written messages in English or German regularly clog up my accounts.

In one day alone I had to delete more than 100 examples of blatant garbage from my work email account.

One of my pet hates in this field is the ubiquitous emails that start off with 'Hi'.

In the last two weeks I've received more than 20 scam bank emails asking for personal details.

I have also covered several stories about residents receiving letters claiming they have won the Spanish lottery or some other fictitious competition.

Only the other week a Hastings resident contacted me to inform me that he nearly lost more than £2,000 in an internet car-selling scam while trying to sell his Rover online.

There appears to be a growing army of scammers, people wanting 'something for nothing', and general con-artists so beware.